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THE BADbrER. 
and. rolls along so awkwardly in its gait that it may easily be mistaken for a yonng pig in the 
dark of the evening, at which time it first issues from its burrow. The digging capacities of 
the Badger are very great, the animal being able to sink itself into the ground with marvellous 
rapidity. For this power the Badger is indebted to the long curved claws with which the 
fore-feet are armed, and to the great development of the muscles that work the fore-limbs. 
When the Badger is employed in digging a burrow, it makes use of its nose in order to 
push aside the earth, which is then scraped away by the fore-paws and flung as far back as 
possible. In a very short time, the accumulation of earth becomes so considerable that it 
impedes the animal’ s movements, and if permitted to remain would soon choke up the tunnel 
which the miner is so industriously excavating. The hinder paws are now brought into play, 
and the earth is flung farther back by their action. As the excavation proceeds, the accumu- 
BADGER .— Meles taxus. 
lated earth becomes so inconvenient that the Badger is forced to remove it entirely out of the 
burrow, by retrograding from its position and pushing the loose earth away in its progress. 
Having thus cleared the tunnel from the impediment, the Badger proceeds to fling the earth as 
far away as possible, and until it has 'done so will not resume its labors. 
In this burrow the female Badger makes her nest and rears her young, which are generally 
three or four in number. The nest is made of well -dried grass, and stored with provisions in 
the shape of grass-balls, which are firmly rolled together, and laid up in a kind of supple- 
mentary chamber that acts the part of a larder. There are also several ingeniously contrived 
sinks, wherein are deposited the remnants of the food and other offensive substances. 
The food of the Badger is of a mixed character, being partially vegetable and partly 
animal. Snails and worms are greedily devoured by this creature, and the wild bees, wasps, 
and other fossorial hymenoptera find a most destructive foe in the Badger, which scrapes away 
the protecting earth and devours honey, cells, and grubs together, without being deterred from 
its meal by the stings of the angry bees. The skin of the Badger is so tough, and lies so 
loosely on the body, that even if a bee or a wasp could find a bare spot wherein to plant its 
sting, the Badger would in all probability care little for the wound ; and as the covering of 
hair is so dense that no bee-sting can force its way through the furry mantle, the Badger is 
able to feast at its ease, undisturbed by the attacks of its winged antagonists. 
As is the case with the generality of weasels, the Badger is furnished with an apparatus 
which secretes a substance of an exceedingly offensive odor, to which circumstance is probably 
owing much of the popular prejudice against the “ stinking brock.” 
